«Stella: A Play for Lovers» (1776) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Translators’ Introduction
- Stella: A Play for Lovers (1776)
- Act 1
- Act 2
- Act 3
- Act 4
- Act 5
- Bibliography
- Appendix
- Act 1
- Act 2
- Act 3
- Act 4
- Act 5
- 1776 Ending
- 1806 Ending
- Series index
We are dedicating this translation to the Susan B. Anthony Institute at the University of Rochester in acknowledgment of all of their support for women, families, and translations and research of importance to women’s studies and gender studies. We are also grateful for all of the assistance and support of the editors of the series, Gail Hart, Peter Meilaender, Kai Evers, and Celia Applegate and for the suggestions given to us by the anonymous peer reviewer. In addition, our heartfelt thanks goes to our families who have supported us so much throughout this process and who have given our work and life so much meaning. So many thanks and love to Gary, Xeni, and Kaia Gustafson and Shel and Ruthie Malett.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is one of Germany’s most famous and revered authors. Both within Germany and abroad Goethe is best known for his drama, Faust, and his novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. Indeed, his Faust drama inspired a number of musical works by Schumann, Berlioz, Gounod, Boito, Busoni, Liszt, Wagner, and Mahler. Goethe is also considered a major contributor to several transforming literary movements in Germany and Europe including the Storm and Stress period, Classicism, and Romanticism. In spite of his high renown, however, Goethe’s play, Stella: A Play for Lovers (1776), is relatively unknown to both scholars and the general public, and is not usually listed as one of his most influential works.
When it was first produced, Goethe’s Stella: A Play for Lovers caused so much turmoil that in Germany, Goethe was forced to retract it from the stage after ten performances in Weimar and Hamburg. German audiences were appalled by the ménage à trois that forms at the end of the play. Historically, audiences, translators, and scholars have focused on the “disturbing” polygamous relationship that forms at the end of the play as the two women, Stella and Cecilia, come together with Fernando. As Dye notes, Stella: A Play for Lovers supplants “conventional with unconventional social relationships” by replacing monogamous marriage with a ménage à trois.1 Of course polygamy was widely discussed during the eighteenth century. Liberals argued that it was natural and perhaps beneficial to society, but there was also a growing reaction against such unconventional, non-monogamous relationships. Indeed, during the time that Goethe’s Stella was performed polygamy was largely considered to offend “every principle of modern, enlightened ethics.”2 Polygamy was a contested family form ← 1 | 2 → throughout Europe and England, and Goethe’s Stella play was vehemently rejected in both Germany and England for its portrayal of a polygamous relationship.
Details
- Pages
- VIII, 110
- Publication Year
- 2018
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781788745383
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781788745390
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781788745406
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781788745376
- DOI
- 10.3726/b14250
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2018 (November)
- Keywords
- Goethe Stella ménage à trois relationships between men and women relationships between women (friendship, love) appendix translation
- Published
- Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2018. VIII, 105 pp.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG